Westhaven field, Rona parking lot

Back to watercolours on location, I just posted a slew of digital images, and had not painted outside for several days until this Wednesday. This scene was done at the Westhaven field near the train tracks, just across from Raffi auto. Yellow buttercups grow this time of year, I did a painting of chair in a field of yellow buttercups one of my all time favorites. 

Field yellow flowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

The bottom of the painting shows part of a community garden in the Westhaven field, while Rona sits in the background. Rona actually donated the land to the community which was a decent thing to do.

Rona rear community garden, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Lets hope this electrical pole isn't the harbinger of construction. For now, it was just a funny thing to paint, it seemed to have an orange top hat, and was singing show tunes? 

Electrical pole tophat, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Using my newfound knowledge of glow effects (learned from using digital sketchbook app), I could create a realistic looking interior track light effect. Done with brush and watercolour its a trick thing to get right. The main idea was the giant tree, and how it seemed to be growing out of the auto shop. Its actually behind the auto shop along the train tracks. 

Raffi interior big tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Great piles of wooden palettes were stacked up in the Rona parking lot. Mainly I stood here to get shade from a nearby tree, and painted the scene up close. The palettes were done loosely using a blend of earth colours and blue. 

Palettes in shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Also in the Rona parking lot there is a donation bin in the corner, and someone left this old couch sitting out. I painted a couch on the curb in London Ontario once, I will try to dig up that painting and scan it again. This one turned out pretty good, it has a nice breezy feel to it. In the background is the recently completed massive condo building on st Jacques street. 

Donation couch, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Digital cold dip

I did a painting in 2020 called trapped under the ice, it was a very hot day and the blue colour made us feel cooler somehow. In this digital version made on Sketchbook app, I recreated the effect with concentric blue rings done in spray paint. Stamping the crack features with varying sizes created depth, and some spatter brush added an ice effect. 

Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

To make this image, I drew out the background alien with soft spray paint, used spatter brush for stars, then took a picture of my cellphone with my other cellphone. Importing the image, trimming, and over-drawing the glow fingers, completed the artwork. Luckily, the fingertips glowed where they touched the screen. 

Non-selfie, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

In this case, many different brushes were used to make a swirling effect, along with cyan bubbles. Its looking down the laundry drain. 

Laundry drain, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

This is the path that the alien took to get to work. I started with a faux-sunset with spray paint, applied stars with spatter brush, then drew over neon lines until they looked good.  

Night light show, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Finally another swirl in monochrome blue. I first applied a texture grid, warped it with the transform tool, then applies a simple swirl with a marker tool, and added spatters with stamp tool, varying the size and colour saturation. Staring at this makes me feel a little cooler! 

Warped swirl in blue, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

Digital heat wave

Its getting hot out here, and summer has just got underway. These digital sketches made on Sketchbook app were all of a warm colour scheme. In this one I applied a dark red (maroon) background and used the mesh tools to establish an interesting pattern, followed by consecutive stamps. Zooming in, you can see a lot of texture like inside a brain. 

Hormonal brain receptors, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Another dimension, inter-galatic planetary, according to the Beasty Boys. Varying the sharpness of the lines created extra depth. Each brush has a different hardness and softness, the markers being sharp, and the spray paint tool being soft. 

Interplanetary growth, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Starting with a digital painting, I smeared it, then drew a yellow outline. Trimming the edges and applying a coloured mesh completed the effect, then I made a warping effect with a transformation tool. 

Glow mask mesh, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

This one uses glow stamps and glow meshes on a blue background. Each lint ball is a tight spiral, which gets whiter at the center. Additional stamps gave the lint effect. 

Microscpic lint balls, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

This one was completed with the 'watercolour pencil' tool, which gives a braided-rug like texture. Processing it in Image J, I applied sharpening transformation to give an edgier appearance. 

Sharper swipe, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Digital giggles and thrills

Initially a colour digital artwork done on Sketchbook app, I changed it to greyscale on Image J. Image J is a free image processing program, developed at the National Institute of Health for scientists. I use it at work for image processing. I also use it at home to format my watercolour scans, and save digital images as jpeg. 

Cellular confusion (grayscale), Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Starting out as three interconnected loops, I gradually turned this one into a surrealist piece. In elementary school, my friends would draw a random squiggle on a piece of paper and I would turn it into a cool drawing. 

Magenta flower smoky sky, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Science inspires art, this one looks like it could have been taken by a confocal (laser scanning) microscope. I learned to use such a microscope back at Western University. 

Microscopic examination, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Starting with near-black coloured swirls, I over-layed neon swirls. The neon tool reacts in an interesting manner to its background. Its quite a pleasing effect. 

Neon swirl on swirl, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Not so pleasing, this one is agitating, like anger artwork. shocking yellow threads evoke a monster, with contrasting red and green patterns. Most of the composition was accomplished with stamping, then I drew over dozens of squiggles. 

Yellow lint monster, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Finally for this batch, I kept over-laying patterns and stamps until it looked like a mish-mash of arts and crafts. Then I used the mesh tool to write my initials PJD and year 26. 

Arts and crafts PJD, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

Digital swirls and neon whirls

More digital artwork done on Sketchbook app, I can really crank these out! I started this one with an interesting monochrome composition, like an old 19th century diagram, then over-layed modern neon colours. 

Eye to eye beams, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Using successive layers of textural drawings and varying the focus helped create this festive abstract. Cherries and mint. 

Loop d loop red and green, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Starting with a dark green background, like a slate chalk board, I drew neon lines in a rough grid shape. It was fun to do this one, like playing a video arcade game. 

Neon maze on slate, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

I think I wrote PJD26 in a highly stylized manner, then created a soft pastel effect with stamping and spray paint effects. 

Plant words, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

One of the stamp tools looks like a spinal column. Juxtaposing primary colours and placing dot and grid stamps completed the effect. 

Spinal meltdown, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

With a dark blue-green (cyan) background, this one used the neon brush set to white. I also applied white glow-stamps to give a sparkle, and dragged some neon blue patterns across horizontally and vertically. Perhaps I can make a few of these for computer screensaver format. 

White neon on slate, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

Digital hippy dippy trippy

I made these digital sketches awhile ago on my cellphone using the Sketchbook app, but with all the location painting lately I have not had the chance to post them. In this digital sketch, I created an eerie eye with absinthe-green accents and some hippy dippy s**t going on. 

Eye awareness universe, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

It took a matter of seconds to make this one, I applied a yellow-chartreuse squiggle then used gradient-fill to populate the negative space. I was like, is that it? enough said. 

Deco echo lime, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

More complex, this one looks like those 'dioramas' we used to make in elementary school. Those were shoe boxes with cardboard cutouts to make a scene. Most of this was done with stamping tools, using grey-scale. 

Starry night thorns, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

A Jackson Pollock-inspired design, these are the most fun to do. After making the tastefully coloured squiggles, I applied some paint splatter stamps to complete the effect. 

Noodle doodle green, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Finally for this lot, a PJD26 circuit breaker. I tried to remember what colour were the old circuit boards my Dad used to work on. I recall the green board with different colour resistors, and yellow channels criss crossing. 

PJD circuit breaker, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Looking back Bolton, London Ontario pylons etc

As I paint on the backs of old painting, I selected a few to scan and show here on the blog since I was not blogging back then. You see my signature on the bottom left, its the scrawl, literally my signature. The painting goes for a realism approach, I like the blue shadow and how the backboard looks against the cloudy sky. Nowadays I have orange paint, back then I was mixing yellow and red. 

Basketball net Bolton, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

Near my old residence building, Saugeen Maitland, there was a utility shed. Probably painted on one of my visits back, like mid 2005, this painting has a warm, quiet feel to it. I was still putting cerulean blue in the shadows, but not too much. 

Saugeen shed, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2005?

Never sure what this house was all about, it was in the middle of campus near the hospital parking lots. I always imagined a professor lived there or something. Its a carefully done painting, one that would have taken me quite a bit of time on location. I sat in a small camping chair back then when I painted. In fact, I sat in a small camping chair to paint all the way until 2020 when I started using my bike and standing. 

Campus house, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

My interest in pylons as a motif goes back, way back! This one was done outside of the hospital, probably around the same time as the previous painting, maybe on the same trip. Now I have an better way of making pylon orange, you see here the orange is a little bit earthy. If I could go back in time, and tell myself to buy some orange paint! 

Pylons hospital, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2005?

Another favorite motif, construction vehicle with orange warning sign. I got a lot of detail into this one. Probably done in between classes. 

Forklift campus, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

An interesting view of plane trails in the sky illuminated by sunset. In the foreground, one of the student residences with lights on, and a car in the parking lot. Its a hard time of day to paint, this is a pretty good effort. I've gotten much better at painting post-sunset and night scenes. 

Plane trails sunset, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

I am pretty sure this is the last painting I made in London Ontario before moving (back) to Montreal, which puts it at winter of 2004, around April perhaps. It was a little sad to leave but I was quite excited to start a new journey in Montreal, and what a journey its been! 

Campus snow vista, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2004?

I didn't know about salt in the water back then, so this winter painting ended up getting frozen solid. It shows the new (at the time) arts building and some kind of pillar in the background.  

Arts building frozen, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x